Re: GT Saturdays General Discussion

It appears my copy of the rally isn't there, but one of the Hi Speed Ring races is instead...? Though it doesn't involve dirt, it does show Waggs on the track, so it's all good. We were chatting with M3 about the show and as he left to attend to life and family, the four of us left decided on one last free for all round of five laps...

At the start, there were a few predetermined outcomes voiced...

And at the start, it seemed like they might hold true...

DZ takes the lead and holds it through lap 4...

Waggs bit the tunnel wall on the first lap as xlr8 and ed battled for 2nd.

Then ed started to notice the weeds by the guard rail in the last "S" turn were getting a little long...

Waggs takes advantage, now having his Vette back from the damage inflicted in the tunnel's maw...

While Ed challenges everyone one else to be a better weed whacker than he was...

By this time, DZ is losing focus faster than a senior citizen losing tokens in a slot machine.

However... He still has enough presence of mind to notice Ed missed a spot or three on the esses.

Basking in the warm glow of lawn care perfection, DZ forgets one of racing's most basic principles...:

"Objects in front of you may be more solid than they appear"...

The end of the wall decides today isn't such a great day to move after all...

xlr8 comes out of the turn, looks up, and sees a golden opportunity. He puts his thumb to the floor.

Using his chromes reflective super powers, Waggs starts placing his car in the perfect spots. He uses the time xlr8 is wondering why the bridge parts are moving to stealthily crawl his way to the front. Once there, he makes his car wide to try and pry the lead from the bewildered x...

After some incidental contact with the moving bridge parts, xlr8 kicks it up a notch. He simply refuses to lose to a bridge... Waggs does all he can, and manages to get perfect draft placement on the final straightaway...

But xlr8 takes a page from the Wag-meister's own playbook, making his car wide and making Waggs work to get by. In the end, he runs out of track as xlr8 holds him off for the win...

A great drive for both of them, and further proof that it aint over till it's over...!

After this, we headed for some dirt rally fun courtesy of xlr8's 5+ mile gravel track.

xlr8 again demonstrated his skill, while ed, Waggs and myself held on to our teeth...

Re: GT Saturdays General Discussion

After the fun of picking all the sand and gravel from our uniforms, Waggs had to move on for the evening. The three of us remaining tried really hard, but were unable to stop Dan from loading a track up of his own to show a particularly nice corner. Unfortunately, DZ couldn't remember the name of the track, so he had to go through 10 or so before he found it.

xlr8 had the itch to race a Vettle, and snuck it out into the track. ed and myself went along, and we had a romping 5 lap good time as x again showed his prowess behind the wheel. The tracks wide rolling turns, stretches of high speed straight and technical sections blended for a very nice high speed affair.

But, having placed third, DZ decided to grab a secret weapon. A track truly diabolical, with one place in particular that can leave a permanent impression in one lap's time.

ed was the first one to reach this point, and his exclamation's of "joy" can't be repeated here...

It can't be typed because most of what he said was laughter. The corner's name is vicious. It's a turn where the track completely drops away at the apex of a completely blind, nearly 90d sweeping corner.

After xlr8 slowed on approach and made the turn without issue, he stopped, listening to the story of DZ's Altezza Race. An AI car had stopped as a bunch of them spun here, and he had driven off the roof, off the hood and kept going... This sparked something in x's mind, and the rest as they say, is history...

He was talking faster than the x2010 drove as we proceeded down the course. There, he abruptly turned around and...

...went back up the turn at full speed. The first few tries weren't entirely successful.

But it wasn't long before the technique was perfected and we were having a blast like nothing GT5 had ever intended...

DZ got the launch perfect and enjoyed the view from the "goodyear" blimp GTSS Vettle for the first time...

This turned out to be the definition of "xlr8int"...

With DZ hitting the turn just after, xlr8 ends up skittering into the landing zone...

He desperately tries to get his Vettle machine moving to get out from under the falling x2010...

But the flying DZ has x's name written on the bottom of his car and makes a perfect landing.

Upon landing DZ bouces up as xlr8 runs under his car. Looking at gravel right after sky can be a bit unsettling...

Dan works on perfecting the "pool ball bank shot" off the invisible wall, and adds an unsuspecting ed to the landing list.

While Dan works on a complete aerial map of the racing facility, ed works on perfecting his patented barrel roll technique:

Dan calls the tower for a landing vector whilst practicing to be a UFV...

An Unidentified Flying Vettle. And no, that's not photo shopped...

By this time we're all in tears, but the ab workout is just what the doctor ordered...

xlr8 goes on to perfect ed's roll technique, as well as placing himself in the perfect spot to cause near vertical launch.

While he does so, ed teaches his x2010 the finer arts, like Ballet...

After some time doing this, we realize we need to run a race to save the replay... We decide to do a "quick" 1 lapper...

Track Length: appx 3 miles.

Lap Time: appx 1 min flat, with a best of 58 sec+/- by xlr8.

Taking 1/2 a minute shy of 2 hours to complete a 1 lap race?

Priceless...

As we finally wrapped up, having skipped dinner and having laughed ourselves silly...

I was struck by an old Sinatra tune as I finally got up and headed for bed...

"Come fly with me, come fly come fly away..."

Even more proof that it aint over till it's over.

The photos you see are just a small part of the GT Saturday this week. If you're looking for a nice mix of serious racing, not so serious racing and having some fun with some good people, pop in next week. Don't matter if you can drive or not. While racing and becoming a better driver is a big part of the philosophy behind GTS, relaxing a little and having a some fun is too. Know you're always welcome, and no matter what your skill level, someone will be right there racing with you.

Unless you're Dan. He races alone. Mostly just because he has a tendency to hit things...

Re: GT Saturdays General Discussion

And to think we were at this for nearly 2 hours!! This could be a new sport - a new kind of 'x' games! Next week I think we should do this at night for some truly epic fireworks - the spark show at launch is unbelievable.

Re: GT Saturdays General Discussion

@smellyeti... I've heard it said that this was the true reason for the invention of duct tape. (...insert rolling eyes and whistling smiley here...) That may not be entirely true, but the source was pretty reliable...

@Waggs... It seems we have underestimated the sneakiness... You do have a definite eye for which cars look good in chrome and which don't. And I have to admit, the stealth implications are well worth considering. Now, about that roof mounted sunlight redirectional apparatus you had me working on...

@ed... The race was two hours... We actually were going on an hour and a half when we started the "race". I agree on the night race. I'll remember to set the time to dark for our next outing. The sparks are VERY cool. Now all we have to do is go twist xlr8's arm a little...

@Sushi... We gotta get you a killer car for this week. Well yeah. Truth be told, last week your car was killer...

...In the "it's good for running persons over" sense...

@Speedy... Hmmm... That may be the only "regular" thing about me. At least I can say it's something that didn't require ingesting large quantities of metamucil...